Officials: Lubricant oil leaking off Calif. coast

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. 
A mixture of oil and water leaking Wednesday from an Exxon Mobil platform spread across a mile of ocean off the Southern California coast, federal and state officials said.

Initial reports indicated the leak on Platform Harmony came from a deck drainage tank where rainwater, lubricants and fluids drain into a sump, said Coast Guard spokeswoman Stephanie Young. She said the company reported the leak Monday and was still working Wednesday to stop the mixture from seeping into the Santa Barbara Channel.

It was unclear how much oil – which Young described as a light lubricant, not crude oil – had spilled, although Exxon Mobil Corp. spokeswoman Margaret Ross said fewer than five gallons of a "water soluble product" had leaked into the ocean since the company discovered the problem Monday.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that owns the platform about six miles off the California coast and leases it to Exxon Mobil, said the spill was 10 feet wide and stretched for about a mile.

The service and the Coast Guard were investigating the leak. Divers were examining machinery and other components underneath the platform to identify the cause, Young said.

There had been no effort to clean up the spill because the sun, waves and the nature of the lubricant were spreading the oil and making it difficult to recover, she said.

State Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said oil companies are responsible for monitoring their equipment for leaks and discharges and that Exxon Mobil could face a "significant penalty" if it did not report and repair the leak promptly.

A 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara that killed thousands of birds helped prompt the federal Clean Water Act and a moratorium on offshore drilling.